Yallingup Boardriders win West Oz Jim Beam Surftag

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 8 January, 2011 : - - Yallingup Boardriders have reclaimed the title of West Australias best surfing club after an emphatic come from behind victory at the Jim Beam Surftag regional qualifying event in Margaret River.

Despite trailing Margaret River for much of the 60-minute decider it came down to a classy power wave by Yallingup surfer Ryan Wordsworth to steal the win by the absolute narrowest of margins in the dying stages.

Wordsworths final run up the beach for three bonus points tipped the team into first place by less than 1 point.

I feel like the quarter back who just threw the winning pass, claimed Wordsworth. I felt like Jake Patterson got underscored during his surf in the final and I knew I needed to go all out on that last wave if we had any chance of getting past Margaret River.

The waves were pretty junky all day, really random rip bowl lefts and rights, you had to be lucky to get scores, he said. We have had the event up at Yallingup for the last seven years so coming down to Margaret River was always going to be tough for us, were all so stoked right now.

The win came even sweeter for Yallingup who surfed without their two biggest stars, world tour surfer Taj Burrow and talented free surfer Jay Davies.

Taj and Jay werent available for us today but they will be on hand for the national final in Sydney which will be a huge boost for the team, said Yallingup team captain Shaun Wright. It feels amazing to get the title back off Margaret River, they got us last year on our home turf so to give it back to them is unreal.

We have never performed well at the National final and a West Oz team has never won it but hopefully we can be the first in February.

The final scores had Yallingup 77.13 to Margaret River 76.27, Geraldton 67.68 and Margaret River B Team 39.70.

Despite missing out on the win today, both Margaret River and Geraldton will join Yallingup at the National Final with three teams eligible to represent the state. Its a major coup for Geraldton who will be the first West Australian club outside of Yallingup and Margaret River to compete on a national stage.

The third round of the FCS Manufacturers cup also ran today with Dave Macauley Surfboards winning ahead of Rusty Surfboards and Nathan Rose Surfboards. The Macauley team of Zac Ogram, Dave Delroy-Carr, Jake Fawcett and Dave Macauley were too classy in the tricky conditions. They have now qualified for the FCS Manufacturers Cup final in Sydney next February.

Only two more regional qualifying events remain in the series with QLD next weekend followed by NSW South on January 29. The 2011 Jim Beam Surftag is proudly supported by FCS, Sanyo and ONeill. Media partners for the series are Swellnet and Tracks surfing magazine.